Second Cup: Something active, something creative

A formula for creating a balanced life

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to always have an athletic and a
creative interest in your life. Doing so will give you
more energy and make life feel more rich. So today's

(00:33):
tip was inspired by a rule I have for my
own five kids past mid elementary school or so. The
children need to do something physical and something musical. You
can do more, and they often do, but as they
create their activity portfolio, they need to do some sport

(00:55):
or physical activity at all times, and they need to
play a musical instrument or sing in some sort of ensemble.
I figure that this rule will help them be well
rounded and build their skills and stay healthy. This rule
also just helps me as a management matter. With five kids,

(01:17):
that can be easy to lose sight of whether any
individual child is appropriately active and social. But as long
as every kid is doing something physical and something musical,
then we should be good. Anyway, as I was describing
this household rule to someone, I had an epiphany. This

(01:37):
is a pretty good rule for adults too. We should
all do something physical just for general health and energy reasons.
I understand not everyone is into music. But if we
broaden that part of the rule to doing something artistic
or otherwise creative, that seems like a reasonable goal too.

(01:59):
We can all look at our lives in the portfolio
of our leisure hours to make sure we are doing
something active and something creative. The active could be anything
walking or running with a friend, swimming laps, taking an
exercise class, lifting weights under the guidance of a trainer,

(02:22):
playing on a softball team. The creative part might require
a little more thought, as fewer adults build such things
into their lives on a regular basis. But if you
set this rule for yourself, it might nudge you to
think through a creative hobby. You could journal, You could

(02:42):
write stories, you could write poems. You could do needlework
or woodworking. You could design a garden. You could paint
or sketch. If you don't know how to do something
creative but have always been interested, you are in luck,
as there are hosts of YouTube video demonstrating every skill

(03:02):
and technique you can think of, plus ones you probably
haven't thought of. Either. You could find a local studio
or school and start taking classes. If you used to
play an instrument, you might be able to rent that instrument,
just like kids in school bands do, and start playing
it again. Electronic keyboards are reasonably affordable if you played

(03:26):
the piano at one time but don't have room for
a grand in your apartment. Most reasonably sized cities have
community choruses, or if you attend a house of worship,
you might look into the offerings there. In any case,
setting the goal of something active and something creative will

(03:48):
help you think about nurturing these parts of you. Adults
tend to spend most of our time working or caring
for family members, with some leisure like watching TV thrown
into the mix. Setting a goal of doing something active
and something creative encourages healthy choices we all need to move,

(04:14):
and it will also make life more interesting. If a
colleague asks on Monday morning what you did over the weekend,
you might think that the answer is often nothing. But
if you went on a group bike ride on Saturday
morning and played in your string quartet on Sunday, well
that is a different matter entirely. You just have a

(04:38):
lot more to think about and talk about. If you
have something active and something creative in your life at
all times. I'd love to hear about it. You can
tell me about it at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

(05:02):
here's to making the most.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Of our talk. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Before Breakfast Pod. That's B the number four then breakfast pod.

(05:28):
You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled
out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I
look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the

(05:50):
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows by

Speaker 2 (06:03):
H